BOSTON—Sitting on the cusp of history — or what passes for history in Toronto basketball — there were no post-game celebrations.

Beating the Celtics on Wednesday brought the Raptors’ magic number down to one. They would have to wait until the charter landed back home to find out if the Knicks lost on the West Coast, putting Toronto in the playoffs for the first time in six years.

Either way, it’s happening.

“I’m not really going to grasp it until we know who we play in that first round, until we’re getting prepped for it. Then I’ll look at it like we’re in the playoffs,” DeMar DeRozan shrugged.

If there was a heartening sign on the night, it wasn’t the way they played (which was better). It was the way they carried themselves afterward. This team isn’t trying to crawl over any finish lines on all fours. It wants a victory lap.

The final few miles have gotten a little ugly recently. On Wednesday night, it was a largely unwatchable game of Whack-a-Mole. They won 99-90, but it seemed like it was tilting the other way with only a couple of minutes remaining. Once again, Kyle Lowry applied the ballast that swung it back in Toronto’s favour.

This Celtics franchise now looks a lot like the Toronto we’re used to. Pre-game, coach Dwane Casey spent most of his scrum reassuring distraught Boston writers that things will get better.

“(Rookie) coach (Brad) Stevens is doing a heck of a job,” Casey promised. The writers looked relieved. They don’t realize that Casey would tell you that the captain of the Hindenburg is doing a heck of a job if you asked him.

This was my favourite part of the night. The small, black tangle of blood vessels that pushes blood around my body catches a beat at the thought of the Raptors and competence. That’s a pleasant experience.

It is nowhere near the quasi-orgasmic tingle of watching any Boston team fail.

The two feelings together should require a cautionary cardiogram and be sold to you in an alley after midnight.

Late in it, when Boston still had a chance, they showed some goofball in the nosebleeds with a green mullet (Ed. Note: Yes. That reads right.) dancing like someone loves him. They closed in and split-screened him.

They had not won at the (Toronto-Dominion) Garden since January 2008. Six years ago. This really was a night to tie off some wounds.

So let us take a small moment to salute the Winds of Change as they catch in our skirts, and then let’s move on to more important business — all the things that are wrong with this basketball team.

There are a whole bunch of them, and they begin and end with the difference in quality between the starting five and everyone else.

Once again here, the Raptors’ bench was egregious, outscored 50-7 by the Celtics’ subs.

It wouldn’t matter if everyone was feeling great and pushing at the starter’s gate. But they aren’t. You can see Lowry hoarding his resources on the court now. He’s still able to flip a switch in the last five minutes, but that will also go. He needs to rest a series of aches. Wednesday night, with no able replacement, he was just under his season average, with 34 minutes.

The Raptors are now 2.5 games ahead of the Nets in the Atlantic Division with 11 games to go. They’ve got an ugly three-game stretch coming up against Miami/Houston/Indiana.

Is there a point at which you eat a couple of likely losses in order to build Lowry — as well as Amir Johnson (ankle, knee), Jonas Valanciunas (back) and DeRozan (an average of 38:24 a night) — back up?

That’s why they pay Casey to be in charge. Because players do not think of this challenge wisely. They think of it like this:

“We don’t believe in that, taking days off, taking games off,” said DeRozan. “We’re going to finish it off strong.”

That’s what you want a player (especially a 24-year-old player) to say, but it’s a terrible idea.

Now that they’re finally back in the post-season, the Raptors will realistically finish anywhere from third to sixth in the East. There’s home court and momentum to consider, but the most crucial thing for this team right now is health.

They need Lowry as close to fully fit as he can be after five months of basketball. They need DeRozan not just ready, but roaring. They need injured catalyst Patrick Patterson back to do CPR on the second unit.

Ensuring that happens may be a little painful to watch, but for the first time in a long time, this team isn’t thinking about meaningful basketball in March. It must turn all of its thoughts to April.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.